Editorial: Examinations for Students on Rotations?

Get involved in assessing your students that are on your rotations (if you are a part of a College of Pharmacy rotation program). Is it justified? It certainly is because they are performing certain functions in your pharmacy that can, and will, reflect on your practice.

What type of examinations can you use? Step back and look at the activities conducted in your pharmacy and start asking yourself questions, such as, "What does a person need to know to satisfactorily perform this task?" Some may say that they don't expect them to know everything because they are still students and will get the information later. Wrong! These students have completed almost all of their classroom training and are on rotations during their last year and then they graduate, take the board examinations, and are then licensed to practice on their own. They generally will not get additional education on calculations, formulations, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, drug quality, law, etc. After you grade the exam, meet with your student to go over it and explain any incorrect responses; this makes it a learning situation. I still remember and value the one-on-one sessions with Chief Pharmacist (Captain Al Rosenberg) during my USPHS hospital pharmacy residency in Boston; I learned a tremendous amount from him and appreciate the time he invested in me.

Put together a set of open-ended, subjective questions where the student has to respond in writing and explain their responses, either in long-hand or on a computer. This can be supplemented with well-designed multiple choice questions if needed.

We tend to think that all of our students are excellent; however, that is not always the case. I have done the examinations over the past couple of years with shocking results. I realize this may not be a popular editorial, but we have too many students who are graduating and becoming pharmacists, and they still are not proficient in calculations, formulations, independent thinking, and rational decision-making.

If all preceptors evaluate their students at the beginning and end of their rotation, it will be to the student's best interest, as well as that of the profession of pharmacy and especially the patients that depend on them. The results of your examinations can be provided back to the Dean's of the colleges for input on their program. After all, you're hiring their product; you are their consumer!


Loyd V. Allen, Jr., PhD, RPh
Editor-in-Chief

Chinese Heparin
The contaminant in the heparin that has been in the news was found to be "chondroitin sulfate," which is a less expensive ingredient usually taken orally for joint pain. Interestingly enough, the over-sulfated version of this chondroitin sulfate was chemically modified to act like heparin. The Chinese FDA is working with the U.S. to attempt to determine if it was done on purpose. (Editor's Note: As much trouble as we have in the U.S. with drug quality from manufactured products, how can we expect the FDA to "cover the world"; especially since most of our drug substances are now imported with just the final dosage forms produced here. Maybe we should reward and encourage drug synthesizing companies to get active again here in the U.S. It may take some relaxing of some of the EPA and OSHA standards but one has to look at the overall picture of drug quality and costs and where can we have the most control.)

Expensive Free Drug Samples
A study reported in the "dailyadVantage (3/24/08: dailyadvantage@pharmalive.com) revealed that patients receiving drug samples actually spent more on the drug than those where no samples were received ($166 over 6 months prior to receiving the samples, $244 for the six months when they received the samples, and $212 for the six-months period after receiving the samples).

e-Pedgree Implementation Delayed in California
The California State Board of Pharmacy has delayed the implementation of the E-Pedgree program from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2011. This action was deemed necessary to allow certain questions and issues to be addressed and for the technology to be in place.

IJPC supplies this list of providers of USP Chapter <797> products as a service to our readers. We strongly urge you to support the current advertisers and supporters (listed in bold) of IJPC.

Listed below are the ten deadliest commercially manufactured drugs:*

Editors Note: The importance of listing these drugs and the number of deaths involved is to emphasize the point that although the media and the FDA revel in bringing to the public's attention any time a compounder is possibly involved in the death of a patient, when comparing the number of deaths caused by compounded preparations to the number of deaths caused by commercially manufactured drugs you will see there are far more deaths caused by commercially manufactured drugs. In fact, there is no comparison. The statistics provided are for an 8-year period. You will note that commercially manufactured drugs resulted in 2,646 deaths per year (21,170 � 8 = 2,646), or 1,000 times the number of deaths supposedly attributed to compounding (2.6 per year). This in no way minimizes the tragedy of a patient's death, but puts the numbers in the proper perspective.

Free Screensaver
Want a different type of screensaver that's free? Simply go to: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html, download the photo, and place it as your screensaver. There is a new picture daily along with an explanation of what it is. Not only are these very nice photographs, it is a good learning opportunity.